Otherhttps://www.iphonelife.com/taxonomy/term/22/
enNew Magazine Column: Ask the Experts! https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/28095/new-magazine-column-ask-experts
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<p><img alt="" src="/sites/iphonelife.com/files/resize/iphone-5-ipad-mini-ipad-640x480-300x225.jpg" style="width:300px; height:225px; float:left" title="" width="300" height="225" /><strong>Announcing a new column in <em>iPhone Life</em> magazine: Ask the Experts!</strong></p>
<p>Got a burning question about your iPhone or iPad? Curious about how your new device works, or just looking for awesome new app recommendations? Let us know!&nbsp;</p>
<p>We’re launching a new magazine column that will address questions from readers like you. So what is it you’ve been dying to know? Go ahead, ask us anything! From broad Apple-related topics to super-specific technical questions, we’ll give you our take and feature the best questions in the magazine.</p>
<p>Send your queries to <strong>experts@iphonelife.com</strong>, and you could end up in the next issue!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Top StoryHow-ToiPadiPadiPhoneiPhoneOtherMon, 10 Dec 2012 20:50:07 +0000Nina Benjamin136038 at https://www.iphonelife.comThe Hidden Pitfall of iPhone’s Facebook Integration https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/3155/hidden-pitfall-iphone%E2%80%99s-facebook-integration
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>The Hidden Pitfall of iPhone’s Facebook Integration – Will People Go Overboard with Their Sharing?</strong></p>
<p>At first glance, the iPhone with a built-in Facebook seems like a very good idea, and one that iPhone users were hoping would be implemented sooner rather than later. But now, something that was merely a rumor has been confirmed by Apple at the recently concluded Worldwide Developers Conference. The newest version of Apple’s iDevice Operating System, iOS 6, which will be released to consumers this fall, will have what Apple calls “Deep Facebook Integration.”</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img alt="" height="212" src="/sites/iphonelife.com/files/resize/u28095/facebook_gallery_status-460x212.jpg" title="" width="460" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>What the User Needs to Do to Access Facebook</strong></p>
<p>In order to get Facebook on your iPhone, the first thing that you will need to do is upgrade your iPhone’s OS to iOS 6 (once it’s available) and access the Facebook setting. You’ll then sign into Facebook through iOS and access this social network in the apps that you frequently use in your iPhone (for example, the Calendar or Contacts app). You’ll even be able to sync information (like all of your friends’ birthdays) from your Facebook profile to your iPhone calendar.</p>
<p>The Facebook integration will allow you to do a whole lot of other things as well—for example, using the new Maps app to upload your Facebook locations.</p>
<p><strong>The Curse of Oversharing</strong></p>
<p>Let’s face it—you are going to increase your Facebook use when it’s integrated on your iPhone. You’ll no longer have to log in to your Facebook account from your desktop or laptop, or even the app. Now that it will be integrated on your iPhone, it’ll make using Facebook all the more convenient. But in this convenience lies a major pitfall—the risk of oversharing.</p>
<p>If you are logged into your Facebook account throughout the day, you are going to “share.” That is an absolute given, and it might lead to the oversharing of your photos, links, and messages, as this integration has made it extremely simple to do so.</p>
<p>Now, you might say that it all depends on the individual, and if the individuals can control their sharing, they won’t overshare, but it’s easier said than done.</p>
<p>As an iPhone user, you’ll have a better incentive to use Facebook, and what’s more, with deeper integration, it will make sharing of content more engaging. When it’s available with iOS 6, developers will also be able to integrate this social media platform into their apps. What this means is that the reasons to use Facebook will keep increasing—will you be able to control its use?</p>
<p><strong>Dangers of Oversharing</strong></p>
<p>There is a thin line between sharing and oversharing. The danger with oversharing lies in the fact that you will go overboard in sharing personal information. More importantly, you’ll do it without realizing what you have done. The fact that you’ll be on Facebook at all times will give rise to this never-ending need to make use of it, which in turn will make you share things that you otherwise wouldn’t have.</p>
<p>Think about a situation where you have an uncontrollable urge to share something, but you don’t have anything worthwhile to share. So, you go ahead and do something that you shouldn’t. You share personal information with respect to your family, marriage, financial situation, or something else—the kind of information that anybody with an immoral bent of mind can use to blackmail you or put pressure on you in any way or form.</p>
<p>This is just an example of how oversharing can go wrong.</p>
<p><strong>Controlling the Urge to Overshare</strong></p>
<p>You need to keep educating yourself about the need to control your Facebook exchange. You need to be fully aware of the implications and the risk of what you are sharing. This is why you need to have a clear idea about Facebook’s privacy settings to make sure that your messages or status updates don’t reach people they are not intended for.</p>
<p>But at the end of the day, it’s important to understand that both Apple and Facebook have teamed up to offer their users a neat little benefit. What’s more, it also makes perfect business sense for them to do so (think Google and Google+).</p>
<p>Whether you use it or not is your call. Be careful, those are my last two words on the matter.</p>
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<p><em>Alicia Carter is an app developer with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.perceptivemobileapps.com">Perceptive Mobile Apps</a>,&nbsp;a Mobile Apps Development Company that is at the forefront of developing cutting edge apps for iPhone, iPad and Android platforms. She loves sharing her views and opinions about this domain with likeminded people through her write ups.&nbsp;</em></p>
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OtherTue, 17 Jul 2012 15:55:37 +0000Guest Blogger120715 at https://www.iphonelife.comFrench Designer's "Revolutionary" New Project is Just an Apple Store... [UPDATE It's a Yacht]https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/28895/french-designers-revolutionary-new-project-just-apple-store
<p><img alt="" src="/sites/iphonelife.com/files/resize/u28895/apple_store_grand_central-580x362-460x287.jpg" title="" height="287" width="460" /></p><p>News broke earlier today about renowned French designer Philippe Starck’s <a href="http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/5/revolutionary-new-product-coming-apple">radio interview</a>, saying he was working on a “revolutionary” new project with Apple. Quickly many began to speculate what this new Apple-born project could be. It's also important to note that it was called a "project" not a "product"...</p><p></p><p>According to Philippe, "Indeed, there is a big <strong>project</strong> together which will be out in eight months".</p><p>We tend to associate Apple with products our minds went in every direction thinking of what new product could come from this rumor. Well it turns out it may be nothing more than a fancy design for a future Apple Store. This isn’t a bad thing just kind of a let down for me. But that’s what I get for buying into juicy rumors…</p><p>A recent post from Sebastien Page of <a href="http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/04/13/philippe-starck-apple-design/">iDownloadBlog</a> noted:</p><blockquote><p>According to a trustworthy source in France, Philippe Starck is actually working on a design for a future Apple Store. I wasn’t able to get more details out of my contact, but I do trust her. And from what I hear, this is hardly a secret in the small French world of design and architecture.</p></blockquote><p>According to a Google’d translation, Philippe said, ”For seven years I came to see him [Steve Jobs] once a month in Palo Alto.” Apparently they had a friendship going on… some kind of bromance. So much that Philippe said he still meets up with Steve’s wife Laurene Powell and keeps in contact.</p><p>So I guess we’ll have to wait to find out what this project could possibly be.</p><p>What do you think?</p><p><strong>UPDATE: </strong></p><p>Apparently Apple denies working on any project with Philippe...</p><p>AllThingsD weighed in:</p><blockquote><p>Reached for comment, an Apple spokeswoman said the company is not working on a new product with Starck. And while she declined to speculate about what the designer might have been referring to when he told France Info Radio that he and Apple “have a big project together that will be out in eight months,” there’s a good explanation for the remark.</p></blockquote><p>According to <a href="http://www.cultofmac.com/125100/steve-jobs-was-designing-his-own-super-yacht/" target="_blank">Cult of Mac</a> they we're working on Steve Jobs's Yatch. So I guess this whole thing was nothing more than a boat... I guess we'll just have to wait.</p>iPadiPadiPhoneiPhoneiPod touchiPod TouchOtherFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:12:51 +0000Dom Esposito110927 at https://www.iphonelife.comTim Cook is a Baller https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/28895/tim-cook-baller
<p><img alt="" src="/sites/iphonelife.com/files/resize/u28895/Tim-Cook-Apple-446x304.jpg" style="width:446px; height:304px" title="" width="446" height="304" /></p><p>Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was the highest paid CEO for 2011. Reported by the New York Times [via <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-08/apple-s-cook-highest-paid-ceo-as-pay-gains-n-y-times-says.html">Bloomberg</a>], the data from research firm Equilar tracked Tim’s money flow for 2011. I think you'll be very surprised by the numbers...</p><p>Tim Cook made approximately $378 million. WOA…. That’s stupid money. Can you even fathom being that rich? All this money came from different sources including, salary, perks, and bonuses around $1.8 million. Tim was also given a one-time stock grant of $376.2 million that vests in 2016 and 2021.<br /><br />So between now and 2021, Tim will make the rest of that $376 million in addition to his regular pay. Keep up the good work Tim! Those numbers are crazy! According to Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, that works out to be a whopping $103,000 a day! That’s insane. He makes $215 on a three minute trip to the bathroom...</p><p>Apple has a great 2011! Since Tim took the CEO spot, Apple’s stock has risen from $375 a share to over $600beating out Google in price per share! Apple is currently the most valuable company with the highest market cap!</p><p>Go Apple!</p>iPadiPadiPhoneiPhoneiPod touchiPod TouchOtherMon, 09 Apr 2012 17:15:35 +0000Dom Esposito110471 at https://www.iphonelife.comWireless Charging for iPhone and iPod touchhttps://www.iphonelife.com/blog/2971/wireless-charging-iphone-and-ipod-touch
<p>&nbsp;A company called WildCharge are releasing the first wireless charging system for both the iPhone and iPod touch. The system consists of a special charging skin for the iPhone / iPod touch that you place on a charging pad without the need for cables or fuss. The skin for the iPod touch is available today. However, the iPhone charging skin will not be available until early July.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Here is a what WildCharge has to say:</p>
<p><em>The WildCharge Skins are durable, protective, form-fitting cases that when placed on the WildCharger Pad, transfer wire-free power from the Pad to the device inside the skin. The soft cases provide the same protection consumers already enjoy from traditional skins, but have the added value and convenience of enabling a wire-free charge. The WildCharger Pad, used in conjunction with the skins, delivers full power to multiple devices, allowing them to simultaneously charge together on the Pad while eliminating the clutter caused by multiple chargers and power cords. The iPod touch skin is available for order today and the iPhone skin will be available in early July.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Pricing is as follows:</p>
<p>iPhone charging skin: $34.99</p>
<p>iPod touch charging skin: $34.99</p>
<p>Charging Pad: $49.99</p>
<p>Charging Skin and Charging Pad Bundle: $79.99</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> www.wildcharge.com is no longer available.</p>
AccessoriesBatteryiPhoneiPod TouchOtherWed, 04 Apr 2012 22:07:39 +0000Kevin Sitek635 at https://www.iphonelife.comArchos 32 Internet Tablet vs iPodhttps://www.iphonelife.com/blog/94/archos-32-internet-tablet-vs-ipod
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/sites/iphonelife.com/files/u97/archos%2032.jpg" title="" width="300" height="300" /></p><p>I must say that I was surprised when I received this "tablet" for review. Somehow I was expecting a 7 to 10 inch screen, but instead, this unit is about the size of an iPod touch. In fact, that's the best way to describe it. It's an Android iPod touch.</p><p>It's a bit thicker than an iPod with a smaller touch screen at 3.2 inches with a 400 x 240 resolution and 18 bit color depth. I found the on screen keyboard extremely difficult to use because the screen and keys are so small. &nbsp;It measures approximately 2 1/8 x 4 1/8 x 1/4 inches and weighs a mere 2 1/2 ounces. It has a handsome, sleek, black case.</p><p>It runs on Android 2.2 with an 800 MHz processor and sports 8 GB of internal memory with no expansion slots for additional memory. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but no GPS. You cannot access the battery and replace it yourself. Battery life of course is variable.</p><p>On the left side is a volume control rocker switch. Below that is the power switch. On the bottom of the unit there is a mini USB port for syncing and charging. Next to that is a 3.5 earphone jack. The right side and the top has nothing. Below the screen are the usual Android hardware button for back, home, settings, and search. Below that are + and - buttons for yet another sound control.</p><p>At first I thought it didn't have a camera because there was no lens on the front and none on the top back. Instead, the lens as at the bottom of the unit on the back. The 5 MPX camera shoots both still and video with support for MPEG-4, MPEG-2, Motion JPEG, WMV, FLV, RM, VOB, RMVB, MPEG-2 PS, VC-1, ASF, MPEG-2 TS, H.264, MKV, MPEG-4 ASP (up to 720p), WMV9 (up to 720p). The audio recorder/player supports MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AAC+, OGG, FLAC. It has a built-in speaker and microphone. Unfortunately there is no front camera and no flash.</p><p>The unit comes loaded with software such as Deezer, Ebuddy, Mewbox, Raging Thunder Lite, Touiteur, Quickpedia. The App Library icon will take you to thousands more apps. It also has a nice photo gallery application.</p><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=archos%2032&amp;tag=valuesnatc-20&amp;index=aps&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325">The best thing about the Archos 32 is the price. The best price I found was about $87</a>, which is a lot better than the iPod. If you want an inexpensive, small, handheld tablet, this could be just the unit for you.</p><p>It does, however, have some shortcomings. The screen resolution is not the best. It lacks a front facing camera and flash. It has no expansion slot and therefore somewhat limited memory. But, all these things cost money, and as is, it sells for a great price.&nbsp;</p>ReviewsOtherFri, 10 Feb 2012 00:27:07 +0000Tim Hillebrand104493 at https://www.iphonelife.comSnap2PDF, Snap Into Action!https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/10442/snap2pdf-snap-action
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><img alt="" src="http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/065/Purple/f3/d3/60/mzl.mmxzxbfc.320x480-75.jpg" style="width:320px; height:480px" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Ever start to feel like you are super unorganized?&nbsp; The feeling can be overwhelming at times.&nbsp; Whether you are a student still in school or a pre-occupied businessman, the <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snap2pdf-scan-documents-share/id472940721?mt=8">Snap2PDF application</a> may be the answer to your prayers!</p><p>The coolest thing about the application is the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, which allows documents to be scanned directly to the phone (to the app) for easy storage.&nbsp; This makes storing your paper documents so much easier -- you don't have to carry the paper around because it will all be “carried” on your phone!</p><p>Simply take a picture of the document that you wish to store on your phone, and it will transfer the document to the phone in no time.&nbsp; Normally you would think that just documents could be used with this app, but that’s not true.&nbsp; Try keeping track of receipts, business cards, newspaper and magazine articles, and more!</p><p>To get started, open the app.&nbsp; On the first screen, choose the option to take a picture of the object that you want to scan into the application.&nbsp; There are a plethora of tools to edit your scan.&nbsp; First, there is an option to flip the photo 90 degrees.&nbsp; Second, there is the “Image Rectification,” which sets the photo and makes it ready to be saved.&nbsp; There is finally an option to change the language of the scan.&nbsp; Save it, and you are done!</p><p>Other options include re-taking pictures, filing pictures alphabetically, and creating categories, making it even easier to stay organized.</p><p>This application is awesome. It can be used to store almost anything.&nbsp; Imagine what life would be like with having the world in your hands!</p><p>Try it out in the app store today -- click <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snap2pdf-scan-documents-share/id472940721?mt=8">here</a>!</p>AccessoriesAppsAppsLifestyleProductivitysnap2pdfiPhoneSynchronizationOther472940721Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:50:22 +0000Brittany Irvine104172 at https://www.iphonelife.comWindows Updated Jailbreak With Absinthehttps://www.iphonelife.com/blog/19476/windows-updated-jailbreak-absinthe
<p>The Time has finally arrived for windows users to get a simple jailbreak. &nbsp;The Absinthe jailbreak was released for the mac&nbsp;<img alt="" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/sites/iphonelife.com/files/u19476/absinthe-208x220.jpg" style="float:right; width:208px; height:220px" title="" width="208" height="220" />yesterday. &nbsp;I am glad to inform all the iPhonelife viewers the windows version is now available. &nbsp;Simply, download the software to your computer, install, and jailbreak. &nbsp;This is very simple, just a few clicks and your jailbroken. &nbsp;The process will take around thirty minutes to complete. &nbsp;Possibly longer should you have several hundred apps on the devices. &nbsp;My iPhone 4S jailbreak took around thirty minutes to complete. &nbsp;To download the Absinthe windows version <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?iystptzthtgfupm">click here</a>. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?l1qdvcv1tic8qz9">Click here</a> for the mac version. &nbsp;I have included a couple videos below. &nbsp;The first is a tutorial for windows users, &nbsp;The second is some of my favorite tweaks. &nbsp;Please leave a comment below of your favorite. &nbsp;What do you think should be on the list. &nbsp;Hope you enjoy the windows version. &nbsp;This is for enjoyment purposes only. &nbsp;Neither iPhonelife or myself assume any resposibility should you brick your device. &nbsp;This is a very simple process but leave it to some knuckle head everytime. &nbsp;Thanks</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xaw4_3gMDf4" width="560"></iframe></div><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DNh-vpk80q4" width="420"></iframe></div><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Mitch</p><p>www.iphonecaptain.com&nbsp;</p>iPhoneOtherSun, 22 Jan 2012 00:48:07 +0000Mitch Stevens102391 at https://www.iphonelife.comBARCODE SCANNING HARDWAREhttps://www.iphonelife.com/issues/2012January-February/BarcodeScanning
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USING THE IPHONE, IPOD TOUCH, OR IPAD FOR SCANNING APPLICATIONS </div>
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<a href="/users/nathan-clevenger" title="View user profile.">Nathan Clevenger</a> </div>
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<a href="/issues/2012January-February">January-February 2012</a> </div>
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At Work </div>
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<p>There are many different ways that today’s hottest consumer technology can be used for business applications. While most organizations that use handheld barcode scanning technology still utilize ruggedized, industrial-strength devices from companies like Motorola or Intermec, there is a growing trend to use off-the-shelf consumer technology as a replacement for these often extremely expensive, rugged devices.</p>
<p>For example, in late 2009, Apple retail stores replaced their Windows Mobile-powered devices from Symbol/Motorola with iPod touch devices and a Linea Pro sleeve. The Linea Pro provides laser barcode scanning and magnetic stripe reading to allow Apple Store employees to simply scan a product, swipe a customer’s credit card right from the iPod in their hands, and let the customer be on their way in mere seconds. This article will examine many of the barcode scanning options for organizations looking to take advantage of applications like these.</p>
<p>This article is an update of a review from one year ago, as most of the products have been updated and several new products have been added.</p>
<h4>Linea Pro</h4>
<p><!--?xml:namespace prefix = xhtml /--><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($499-599, <a href="http://ipclineapro.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">ipclineapro.com</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="Linea Pro" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/LineaPro.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 107px; margin-right: 2px; margin-left: 2px; float: right;">The Linea Pro was popularized as the hardware used in Apple Retail stores to facilitate rapid customer checkout. The Linea Pro is a sleeve for an iPhone or iPod touch, which makes it a single-unit form-factor that is very convenient for many kinds of applications. In addition to providing a moderate level of durability and protection to the iPod touch, it also offers a hot-swappable battery that not only powers the scanner but also serves to keep the iPod fully charged. The Linea Pro has both a 1D/2D barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader, which makes it perfectly suited for applications like retail point-of-sale where the product can be scanned and the customer’s credit card swiped. A Software Development Kit, or SDK, is provided by the manufacturer, Infinite Peripherals, to give app developers low-level access to scanners and readers to configure settings, trigger the barcode, and receive events for successful scans or swipes. As the first barcode scanner to receive certification from Apple to provide an SDK for low-level access, the Linea Pro is gathering quite a bit of momentum. This is happening in internally developed applications similar to Apple’s deployment and also in several commercial apps and point-of-sale solutions such as <strong>LightSpeed Mobile</strong> (<a href="http://xsilva.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">xsilva.com</font></u></a>). The Linea Pro is the perfect device for many types of applications, and although the latest version now supports the iPhone 4/4S and iPod 4th Gen, the Linea Pro does not work with the iPad.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">Socket CHS-7Xi</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($599, <a href="http://socketmobile.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">socketmobile.com</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="Socket CHS7" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Socket-CHS7.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;">Socket has been a leader in the barcode scanning accessory market for years, and the CHS-7Xi is a very polished device. Compared to all of the other scanners, the CHS-7Xi feels the most solid and like it was manufactured with the highest quality plastics. In addition to providing the longest battery life of any scanner in this review, the CHS-7Xi also offers both a removable battery and electrical contacts for easily charging in a cradle. The CHS-7Xi has the most intuitive controls for both power and scanning, and it offers both beeps and vibration to signal a successful scan. Additionally, the laser in the CHS-7Xi appears to be brighter than any other reviewed unit and captures scans with more ease than the other units. Since the unit uses the Bluetooth HID profile to connect to the iOS device, it supports the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch through keyboard emulation. Since the previous review, Socket has been certified by Apple and now provides a low-level SDK for integration into applications, making the CHS-7Xi a serious contender for sophisticated line-of-business applications. The addition of the SDK eliminates the only negative factor in the previous review, making an excellent market-leading scanner for many types of situations where an external scanner is preferred.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Socket has also released the low-end CHS-7C that supports HIDonly (not the SDK) and 1D scanning at a lower price point of $249.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">Opticon OPN 2002</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Also known as the <strong>Scanfob 2002</strong>) ($299, <a href="http://serialio.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">serialio.com</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="Opticon OPN 2002" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Opticon-OPN-2002.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;">The Opticon OPN 2002 (also known as the Scanfob 2002) is the smallest unit covered in the review. The size and form factor make the Scanfob a great unit for carrying around in your pocket for easy scanning. It also connects to any iOS 4.x device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch) through the Bluetooth HID profile, which gives it keyboard emulation. As mentioned previously, this allows for flexibility as scanning can be used in almost any application, but since it does not offer an SDK it is more difficult to build rich custom line-of-business applications that use the scanner. The device does have its quirks. For instance, it does not have a power button to turn it off. It will turn itself off after a period of inactivity, but since it connects to the iOS device using the Bluetooth keyboard profile, the keyboard on the iOS device is not visible while the device is connected. The company did provide a scannable setting that converts the small button (normally the button for pairing) into a keyboard toggle switch. Even with its idiosyncrasies, Scanfob is a great unit for many types of applications, and comes in as the least expensive scanner hardware covered in this review.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">KoamTac KDC300i</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($649, <a href="http://barcodeguy.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">barcodeguy.com</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="KDC 300i" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/KDC300i.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 2px; margin-left: 2px; float: right;">While the KoamTac KDC300i is the most expensive scanner I reviewed, it also the most feature-rich and flexible. It is the only Bluetooth-based scanner that has been certified by Apple and is therefore able to offer an SDK. As the only Apple-certified scanner with an SDK that supports the iPhone and iPad, it is currently the only option for solutions that need this requirement. Beyond that, it has quite a few very unique features like an LED display that can be programmed using the SDK. It also has a programmable firmware that can run standalone applications that you can download to a device in a batch process. This is a very appealing feature for many iPad-based uses, where the maneuverability of a user holding an iPad in one hand with the scanner in the other is questionable. This would allow users to scan a sequence of barcodes, either disconnected from the device for a batch download or connected to the iOS device via Bluetooth, and use the screen on the KDC300i as the user interface for feedback and interaction. For rich line-of-business applications and deployments that require powerful features, the KoamTac is an excellent device, even if it is the most expensive.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">Mobilogics iScan</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($149, <a href="http://mobiligics.com.tw/"><u><font color="#0066cc">mobiligics.com.tw</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="Mobilogics iScan" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/iscan.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;">A new addition since the previous barcode scanner review, the iScan is certainly the most innovative new product that I had the opportunity to review. As an Apple-certified device that is quickly and easily attached to any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, the iScan opens the door for many new types of barcode scanning uses with iOS devices. Add on the very low price combined with a powerful SDK, the iScan has the potential to rapidly gain market share for many consumer-grade and enterprise-class, line-of-business solutions. While the device feels quite solid and sturdily built, it is not nearly as rugged as some of the other solutions on the market. I can see the dongle easily breaking off if the device it is attached to is dropped on the floor. Bottom-line, the iScan is a very innovative and potentially game changing iOS accessory.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">Mobilogics iPDT380</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($249, <a href="http://mobiligics.com.tw/"><u><font color="#0066cc">mobiligics.com.tw</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="Mobilogics iPDT380" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/iPDT380.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 2px; margin-left: 2px; float: right;">Mobilogics iPDT380 is an Apple certified accessory for the iPod touch, and includes an SDK for deep application integration. In fact, the iPDT380 uses the same SDK as the iScan, also from Mobilogics, which allows for flexible applications to be built that support both scanner devices automatically. The construction is adequate, but feels a little flimsy, especially compared to the very solid-feeling construction of the iScan unit, although the inexpensive price more than makes up for that shortcoming. The iPDT380 works with the iPod touch (2nd and 3rd gen) but not the iPhone or iPad.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">CipherLab 1660</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($249, <a href="http://vic.hk/"><u><font color="#0066cc">vic.hk</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="CipherLab 1660" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/1660.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 2px; margin-left: 2px; float: right;">New since the last review, CipherLab has introduced the 1660 with support for iOS 4+ devices. While somewhat larger than some of the other external Bluetooth scanners, the CipherLab 1660 is a solid barcode scanner in both construction and functionality. It does not have an SDK, so it only supports keyboard emulation via the Bluetooth HID profile. One interesting feature of this device is the use of two AAA batteries to the power the unit. While many users will certainly prefer a rechargeable battery pack, some users may appreciate the ability to easily and quickly replace the batteries.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">RedLaser SDK</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">($0.10/user, <a href="http://redlaser.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">redlaser.com</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><img alt="redlaser sdk" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/redlasersdk.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 214px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;">Downloaded over 4 million times, the <strong>RedLaser</strong> iPhone app (free, <a href="http://app2.me/4259">app2.me/4259</a>) is one of the most popular paid apps in the App Store. It uses the camera in the iPhone to optically recognize the barcode on a product and then automatically performs searches to allow for easy comparison shopping. The RedLaser SDK gives other app developers the ability to use the same camera-based barcode scanning technology in their own apps, either with custom in-house enterprise apps or with apps distributed through the App Store. Users of applications that require rapid, sequential scanning will find that for intensive scanning, a laser-based scanner is much easier to use than the optical camera-based scanner provided by RedLaser. While a very powerful and simple way to add scanning capability to almost any app, RedLaser was acquired by eBay in 2010, so it’s not entirely clear if eBay is dedicated to long-term support of the SDK for enterprise line-of-business use. RedLaser did not respond when asked if they were planning to add support for other barcode symbologies like Code39 and Code128. Those other symbologies would be required for many serious line-of-business applications outside of a purely retail or inventory context that uses only UPC/EAN. With the exception of these concerns, if your application only needs to support the occasional UPC, EAN, or QR Code scanning on the iPhone, 4th gen iPod touch, or iPad 2, then the RedLaser SDK is an excellent and inexpensive option.</xhtml:p></p>
<h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>The Leaders</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></font></h2>
<p><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Since many of these scanners have strengths and weaknesses in different areas, there is no single “winner” in the market. There are appropriate applications for each and every one of the barcode scanners covered here. You should evaluate all the options, weighing the pros and cons for your particular situation. You should also conduct a pilot with more than one option, if possible.</xhtml:p></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p></font><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">That being said, several devices are clear leaders in the marketplace, based on price, quality, and capabilities. The Linea Pro is becoming a very popular device in retail environments where a single device is preferred, and the Socket CHS-7Xi is also quite popular for users that prefer an external Bluetooth scanner. Additionally, the iScan holds a very significant amount of promise for many types of interesting uses, as it is the only certified scanner that currently physically attaches to the iPad.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">While Microsoft has had a virtual monopoly on barcode scanning solutions with Windows CE and Windows Mobile for nearly a decade, Apple is now able to make a serious play in this space with this line-up of scanning accessories. Since this is an area that is going to only evolve further and attract additional competition, the coverage of this area of the market will likely be an on-going effort for future articles and reviews. In the meantime, if your organization already has or is considering deploying an iOS-based scanning solution, I would love to hear from you about your experiences with the different products on the market. As always, feel free to contact me at <a href="mailto:nathan.clevenger@iphonelife.com"><u><font color="#0066cc">nathan.clevenger@iphonelife.com</font></u></a>.</xhtml:p></p>
<h2><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h2 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>AT A GLANCE</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></font></h2>
<h4><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Linea Pro</xhtml:p></font></h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: </xhtml:p></font><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Single-piece form-factor</xhtml:p></font><br>
<font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: </xhtml:p></font><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">iPod and iPhone only</xhtml:p></font></p>
<h4>CHS-7Xi</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Solid design and great battery life</xhtml:p></font><br>
<font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: No SDK</xhtml:p></font></p>
<h4><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h3 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>Opticon OPN 2002</xhtml:b></xhtml:h3></font></h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Smallest and slimmest unit</xhtml:p><br>
<xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: No SDK</xhtml:p></p>
<h4>KoamTac KDC300i</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Flexible and feature-rich; has LED display and offline batch scanning</xhtml:p><br>
<xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: Most expensive unit</xhtml:p></p>
<h4>Mobilogics iScan</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Innovative form-factor excellent for occasional use</xhtml:p><br>
<xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: Device could easily break if dropped</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h3 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>Mobilogics iPDT380</xhtml:b></xhtml:h3></font></font></h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Relatively inexpensive and straightforward device</xhtml:p><br>
<xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: Feels a little cheap; only supports 2nd and 3rd Gen iPad touch</xhtml:p></font></font></p>
<h4><font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:h3 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>CipherLab 1660</xhtml:b></xhtml:h3></font></font></h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Uses AAA batteries for quick replacement</xhtml:p></font></font><br>
<font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: No SDK</xhtml:p></font></font></p>
<h4><font size="2"><font color="#000000">4RedLaser SDK</font></font></h4>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pro: Relatively inexpensive way to add barcode scanning support to apps</xhtml:p></font></font><br>
<font size="2"><font color="#000000"><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Con: Limited barcode support; not usable for extensive repeated scans.</xhtml:p></font></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
UtilitiesOtherWed, 18 Jan 2012 20:53:06 +0000SolomOn27102077 at https://www.iphonelife.comMANAGING YOUR BRAINhttps://www.iphonelife.com/issues/2012January-February/ManagingYourBrain
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AN EXPLORATION OF PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT </div>
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<a href="/users/daniel-w-rasmus" title="View user profile.">Daniel W. Rasmus</a> </div>
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<a href="/issues/2012January-February">January-February 2012</a> </div>
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At Work </div>
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<p><img style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Managing your Brain" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/ManageBrain_top.jpg">Our brains are wonderful devices for keeping track of information. They are also remarkable sense-making machines, finding patterns in seemingly disparate bits of data. In the information age, however, and in the burgeoning knowledge economy, we find our brains outstripped by their own inventions, their own discoveries, and their own creations. We have invented devices that are capable of capturing, generating, and storing more information than any one human can consume, let alone leverage to personal advantage. We have all experienced that moment of perfect epiphany at the wrong place, with the wrong tools—that perfect epiphany that becomes a nagging lost memory because our brains are constructed to hold only a finite number of elements in a queue. It has been argued that Leonardo Da Vinci was the last man who knew everything. With the rapid pace of discovery during the later Renaissance and beyond, especially after the advent of publishing, technology marched inevitably toward today’s overwhelming information experience. Yet Da Vinci could not know all as well, and he knew that. In mirror-reversed script, with delicate and intricate drawings, Da Vinci kept notebooks that detailed his discoveries, his insights and his interpretations on topics as diverse as art and nature, sculpture and fluid dynamics, weaponry and biology.</p>
<p><img style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Davinci - Capture Thoughts" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Davinci-CaptureThoughts.jpg">Until recently, most people captured their personal knowledge in much the same way as Da Vinci: on scraps of paper sometimes haphazardly organized, sometimes meticulously so, as a repository for personal use. Even the most meticulous sometimes fail to find a tidbit of desperately sought knowledge as they comb their collections.</p>
<p class="caption">Even Leonardo Davinci nedded to capture his thoughts externally through words and images.</p>
<p>Now, however, we need not organize our knowledge in one dimension. We need not choose category over time, nor lose the subtle classifications of our data. With personal devices and innovative software, we can now capture our personal thoughts with incredible fidelity and clarity, and we can do so almost anytime, anywhere. More importantly, we can retrieve that information rapidly along any of the vectors it represents, from time to concept, from collaborator to location.</p>
<p>The iPhone, the iPad, and the personal computer represent a trifecta of devices that permit individuals to manage their personal knowledge along a continuum of convenience without a loss of access.</p>
<h2>CAPTURING KNOWLEDGE</h2>
<p>The iPhone and iPad are both highly sophisticated knowledge capture devices, and a number of very strong knowledge capture tools have already entered the market in the form of apps. Good knowledge capture tools facilitate the acquisition and storage of a wide range of data types: from text to images (drawings and pictures), to video and auditory information. It is unlikely that a diarist will only use an iOS device to record their personal experience. So, the best tools will include the ability to save content through a web service like iCloud, Box or Dropbox—or as a fall back, e-mail.</p>
<p>Evernote has proven to be, time and again, the best knowledge capture tool on the market. Evernote’s general utility has already been established, so I won’t go into a full review here. In the context of personal knowledge capture, its cross-platform delivery, ability to capture rich text and sound, along with its tags and organization features, make it powerful, yet it remains easy to use. Evernote gets around its most clear deficiency, handwritten notes, by supporting the attachment of images from the iOS photo library. The acquisition of Skitch addresses annotation for Mac users, and hopefully that technology will migrate to iOS and PCs in the future. This acquisition indicates that Evernote is not only the current tactical leader, but the strategic leader as well.</p>
<p>"EVERNOTE CAN’T HANDLE HANDWRITTEN NOTES, BUT IT WORKS AROUND IT BY LETTING YOU ATTACH IMAGES FROM YOUR PHOTO LIBRARY."</p>
<p>If your knowledge is already printed out or otherwise captured on paper, consider <strong>JotNot Scanner Pro</strong> for the iPhone, which quickly captures what is on paper and stores good quality images on the iPhone.</p>
<p><img style="width: 150px; height: 214px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Notify" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Notify.jpg">You may also want to complement Evernote with <strong>Notify</strong>. Notify supports freehand sketching as well as PDF annotation. It exports to various repositories like Dropbox, but it also exports to Evernote. For Evernote users this means dropping another $1.99, but that is a small price to pay for enhanced features.</p>
<p class="caption">Notify supports freehand sketching and works as a nice complement to Evernote.</p>
<p>If you prefer less linear forms of notetaking, I recommend iThoughtsHD or iMindMap, the two best mindmapping tools on iOS. (See Dan’s detailed review of mindmapping tools in the July-August 2011 issue of iPhone Life magazine.)</p>
<p>Process Knowledge is a special case of knowledge capture that includes time and sequence as key elements of its metadata. One of the most sophisticated tools is Podio, a cloud-based process development tool that specifically targets execution on the iPad. Unlike other social software that concentrates on Facebook-like streaming, Podio offers a rich, end-user accessible development environment for capturing processes and procedures and turning them into web apps. Once the process knowledge is codified, it can be accessed via the Podio app. If you want to just draw flowcharts rather than make your knowledge executable, I recommend freehand drawings in Notify or the expensive, but sophisticated, OmniGraffle for more refined drawings.</p>
<h2>PERSONAL LEARNING</h2>
<p>The iOS platform is ideal for personal learning. A wide variety of apps offer either portals to content, or proprietary content access. Proprietary apps include Wired, PBS, NPR, the Economist and BusinessWeek. More open content aggregators include TED, Khan Academy and iTunes University. ITunes University also provides audio content, as does NPR and audio books through iBooks. And then, of course, every eReader platform from Kindle to Inkling has found a home on iOS.</p>
<p>But content alone is not enough for personal knowledge management. In practice, learning environments need to support personal notes, highlights, and ideally, sharing. Although the platforms mentioned in the previous paragraph do have the ability to deliver content, they aren’t part of integrated learning system. One of the coolest features for personal knowledge management is the highlight and notes function on Amazon’s Kindle, which also exposes community highlights to the reader. As a reader starts to doze, the Kindle can rekindle focus through crowdsourced highlights that help the reader skip less relevant passages.</p>
<h2>SOCIAL LEARNING</h2>
<p>Learning is both a personal and a social activity. Personal knowledge management focuses on the individual aspects of learning. An aspect of social learning comes from reading, watching, or listening to content, exactly as previously described in personal learning. Unlike personal learning, where the learner selects the content he or she wants to assimilate, social learning usually involves others suggesting sources of learning, and then augmenting that learning through social interaction. For organizations that use Yammer, or SalesForce customers using Chatter, those tools have iOS clients that extend their PC-based interactions models to iOS devices. I am, for instance, a member of a learning community that uses Yammer, and I often engage the community, as a learner and an educator, on my iPhone or iPad.</p>
<h2>ACCESSORIES</h2>
<p><img style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="livescribepen" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/livescribepen.jpg">One of the best accessories for the iPad and the iPhone is the LiveScribe Echo smart pen. If you already own an iOS device, people may ask why you need a digital pen. The answer is usability. First, the Echo can take notes much less intrusively than an iPad. Despite great strides in digital ink capture, the iPad is not ideal for handwritten notes, even with a stylus. IOS devices don’t capture small details well except under extreme zoom, which trades off context for precision. With an Echo, you do what you have been doing since before kindergarten: you write on a piece of paper (albeit special “dot” paper). The pen tracks everything you write and listens to everything you hear. The pen supports uploading to a PC or Mac. The resulting Pencast, as it is called, can be saved online, where the iOS Pencast app can play it back. Another advantage of the Echo is synchronized data capture with sound, creating context sensitive notes. Tapping on a note replays the sound being recorded at the time of the note. This works in Pencasts and with the pen itself. Microsoft OneNote is the only comparable contextual notes taker, but its iOS version doesn’t support this feature.</p>
<p class="caption">The Livescribe Echo smart pen records and syncs sounds and notes, and you can play back the resulting "Pencast" through the Pencast app.</p>
<p>Other accessories you will want to have handy include a keyboard. I use the Kensington rechargeable Bluetooth Portfolio keyboard that doubles as a case. Although I miss the shift key on the right side of the keyboard, it provides a better experience than typing long notes on the virtual keyboard.</p>
<p>I would also recommend a stylus. I find the Kensington Virtuoso has a better feel than the Pogo. Some apps, like Wacom’s Bamboo and Notify, support wrist recognition to make handwriting easier, but it is by no means perfect. Regardless, a stylus proves to be a more natural note-taking companion.</p>
<h2>RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOU</h2>
<p>If you are interested in personal knowledge management, experiment at first with free versions of various apps, or be willing to spend a little to learn. But in the end, pick one or two tools and stick with them. I can tell you from personal experience that if you spend your time evaluating tools rather than capturing knowledge, much of what you know will be lost in your search for the ultimate tool. Start getting what you know into a tool that is good enough. As long as your tool of choice allows you to export it into some common format, pick an app and start seeing how capturing what you know can benefit how you work. Also optimize for the kind of knowledge you capture. If you are primarily writing text or recording audio, then Evernote is probably all you’ll need. But if you annotate images, sketch. or otherwise have a more visual bent, then you will need to complement your textual notes with some other tool.</p>
<h2>AT THE MOMENT, IOS IS BEST</h2>
<p>If you want a truly personal, responsive and mostly adequate personal knowledge management companion, the iPad, with a companion iPhone, is your best bet. Other tablets don’t have the variety of apps. PCs are too physically clunky and take too long to boot. The cloud is too vast and impersonal, though aspects of cloud computing do reduce the friction of replicating knowledge repositories. We are not quite to the point of Apple’s still relevant Knowledge Navigator video, but the devices we have now move us well in that direction when it comes to capturing what we know and making it available to our future selves.</p>
<h2>PRODUCTS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE<!--?xml:namespace prefix = xhtml /--><?xml:namespace prefix = xhtml /><xhtml:h3 xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><font color="#000000">:</font></xhtml:b></xhtml:h3></h2>
<h4><font color="#000000">Accessories:</font></h4>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><img style="width: 150px; height: 214px; margin-right: 2px; margin-left: 2px; float: right;" alt="Livescribe" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/livescribe.jpg"><strong>Kensington Virtuoso Stylus</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b>$24.99, <a href="http://kensington.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">kensington.com</font></u></a></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>KeyFolio Bluetooth Keyboard Case<img style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Livescribe" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/kesingtonkeyboard.jpg"></strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b>$99, <a href="http://kensington.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">kensington.com</font></u></a></xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b>LiveScribe echo SmartPen</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></h4>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b>$149.99, <a href="http://livescribe.com/"><u><font color="#0066cc">livescribe.com</font></u></a></xhtml:p></p>
<h2>Content Sources</h2>
<p><xhtml:p prism:class="deck" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:prism="http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/basic/2.0/">Available as apps or as syndicators of content available through the app store:</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p prism:class="deck" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:prism="http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/basic/2.0/"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong><img style="width: 75px; height: 75px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Wired" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/WiredIcon.jpg">Wired</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/3494/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/3494</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>TED</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/3154/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/3154</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>BusinessWeek</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(iPad Only: Free, <a href="http://app2.me/4228/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4228</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong><img style="width: 75px; height: 75px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Economist" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/economist.jpg">Economist</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/4229/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4229</font></u></a>; iPad version: <a href="http://app2.me/4231/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4231</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>Z</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>inio</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/2402/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/2402</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>Khan Academy</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/4232/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4232</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong><img style="width: 75px; height: 75px; margin-right: 4px; margin-left: 4px; float: left;" alt="Economist" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/PBS.jpg">PBS</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/4233/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4233</font></u></a>; iPad version: <a href="http://app2.me/4234/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/4234</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b><strong>NPR</strong></xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Free, <a href="http://app2.me/275/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/275</font></u></a>; iPad version: <a href="http://app2.me/3000/"><u><font color="#0066cc">app2.me/3000</font></u></a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
LifestyleProductivityOtherWed, 18 Jan 2012 19:47:53 +0000SolomOn27102075 at https://www.iphonelife.comGAMING ON YOUR IPADhttps://www.iphonelife.com/issues/2012January-February/GamingOnYouripad
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A Bigger Screen Means Bigger Fun </div>
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<a href="/users/jason-d%E2%80%99aprile" title="View user profile.">Jason D’Aprile</a> </div>
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<a href="/issues/2012January-February">January-February 2012</a> </div>
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Apps </div>
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20 </div>
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<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><xhtml:i>The</xhtml:i></xhtml:b>&nbsp;original iPad was quickly adopted by game-loving iPhone fans, but it’s been frequently viewed as a big iPhone by developers. After all, screen size aside, the original iPad’s hardware was basically the same. With the iPad 2, however, the dual-core processor suddenly paved the way for better gaming on the go, which has resulted in some truly spectacular-looking, top-tier games.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">It takes a combination of a great presentation and solid gameplay to show off the power of your tablet. We’ve gathered a list of six special games. These games were chosen not just for their ability to impress your friends, but also for their lasting appeal, excellent controls, and ability to involve the player.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Anomaly Warzone Earth HD</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">($3.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4222/">app2.me/4222</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="AnomalyWarzoneEarthHD" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/AnomalyWarzoneEarthHD.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Tower Defense games are a dime a dozen, but it took Anomaly Warzone Earth to finally do something truly interesting with the concept. Twisting the player’s role around, this isn’t a game about planting defensive structures everywhere to hold off a horde of monsters. Instead, aliens have planted the towers, and it’s the player’s job to get past them.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="AnomalyHDscreenshot" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/AnomalyHDscreenshot.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 113px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Anomaly works well because it’s a tightly crafted, intense, and stunning-looking game. The missions are varied and challenging, and the gameplay is an ingenious mix of anti-tower defense and traditional real-time strategy. Players must carefully choose the units for each mission to overcome an array of different towers—each with different offensive capabilities.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">To survive, players will need to master the use of various power-ups such as repair, smoke screen, decoys, and bombs for widespread destruction. Destroying a tower earns money and power-ups, so taking down towers not in the direct path of the mission objective can be a rewarding risk.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">To complement the excellent gameplay, Anomaly sports some of the best graphics of any tower defense-style game. The topnotch 3D visuals make it look like a full-blown PC game, complete with exceptional lighting, explosion, and weapon effects. For gamers who like tower defense games but are looking for something new, this is the best game in town.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Dark Meadow</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">($5.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4223/">app2.me/4223</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="DarkMeadowIcon" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/DarkMeadowIcon.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Taking after one of the first major games to hit iOS, <strong>Infinity Blade </strong>($5.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/3318/">app2.me/3318</a>), Dark Meadow moves far away from the fantasy setting of that amazing-looking game. This is a gloomy and macabre horror story with a spooky atmosphere rivaling popular horror games like <strong>Silent Hill </strong>($0.99, iPhone:&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4227/">app2.me/4227</a>) and <strong>Resident Evil</strong> ($6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/3137/">app2.me/3137</a>). It’s definitely a mobile game though, designed as a short but entertaining experience. Dark Meadow’s gameplay is largely identical to Infinity Blade. The game world looks stunning, but movement is limited to specific points on the screen instead of free roaming. Combat includes projectile weapons like a crossbow in addition to melee attacks, which adds a little more to the monster bashing. There’s also a lot of trial and error here, especially when facing the final boss.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="DarkMeadowscreenshot" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/DarkMeadowscreenshot.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Where Dark Meadow shines is in how well it shows off the abilities of the iPad to create a truly immersive and tense gaming experience. The writing is excellent, as is the music and voice acting, and the environments are detailed and console-worthy. With a bit more creativity in the gameplay department, this could be the next big franchise for the iPad. As it is, it’s a dark and effective trip through a truly creepy haunted hospital.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Galaxy on Fire 2 HD</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">($9.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4224/">app2.me/4224</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="GalaxyonFire2" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/GalaxyonFire2.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Space combat games have largely been neglected on home consoles, but thanks to games like Galaxy on Fire and its sequel, the much-loved genre is seeing a resurgence on mobile devices. The revamped HD version of this terrific shooter really does sport console-style graphics and game play, albeit with touch screen controls. The beautiful space vistas add an incredible level of ambiance to the fast-paced spaceship combat. The developers have been studiously updating the game since its first release.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="galaxyfire2" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/galaxyfire2.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 94px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">In addition to updating the resolution to support the iPad 2, the game has been tweaked for extra graphic effects, gone universal, and even added on a whole new campaign that continues the action after the main storyline ends. Fans of 1990’s-era space combat simulators like Wing Commander and Freespace will particularly be drawn to Galaxy on Fire 2. Those classics are clearly the inspiration here, and being able to take an epic space adventure on the go is priceless.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">The game is also noteworthy because it gives players so much to do. Aside from the main storyline, there are tons of locations to visit and jobs and missions to complete. The deep gameplay, excellent controls, solid audio, and great graphics all add up to one of the best examples of this genre in years—on any platform.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Feed Me Oil HD</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">($1.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/3983/">app2.me/3983</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="FeedMeOilHDicon" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/FeedMeOilHDicon.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">There are a lot of great physics-based puzzle games available for the iPad, each full of creative conundrums and engaging visuals. Feed Me Oil is a perfect example of this type of game. The premise is simple—players must navigate an oil flow to specific areas of the screen (which look like large Earth creatures) using a variety of tools. Tools might be simple platforms, spinning windmill blades, small hurricanes, or other ingenious items.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="FeedMeOilHDscreenshot" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/FeedMeOilHDscreenshot.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 113px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">A solid hint system gives younger or inexperienced gamers help when they need it, and there are lots of levels to conquer and then re-conquer in an effort to get a better score. Re-released in an HD version, Feed Me Oil takes great advantage of the iPad’s screen, which allows for much easier placement of items and a more detailed view of the overall playing field.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">The fun, cartoonish graphics are simple yet detailed, and the excellent physics really set the game apart—particularly the flowing oil mechanics. There’s also a semi-environmental bent and look to the gameplay that should appeal to both parents and kids.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Dead Space HD</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">($9.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4225/">app2.me/4225</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="DeadSpaceHD" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/DeadSpaceHD.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">EA Games made a huge splash when they first released Dead Space for iOS. Far from some cheap tie-in made to sell more console versions of the game, this was a totally new excursion into the horrific world of the successful action-horror series. Kudos to EA for constantly updating the game to make sure Dead Space continues to be one of the most cutting-edge mobile games in the App Store.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="DeadSpaceHD-screenshot" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/DeadSpaceHDscreenshots.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Dead Space was first updated to utilize the iPad 2’s beefy hardware, but with the release of iOS 5, it’s been further enhanced. The visuals are a little more impressive with more effects, the gameplay is a little smoother, the audio is still superbly creepy, and the controls have been tweaked to be as user-friendly as possible. The larger screen and extra power of the iPad make the already great graphics pop, and the game is simply more effective on a tablet.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Granted, Dead Space isn’t for everyone. It’s a mature-rated game for a reason, and EA did a remarkable job of not toning down the violence and horror elements for iOS. Also, for fans of the series, the iOS version focuses on a different character and plot line, making it well worth playing without feeling redundant.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Machinarium</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(iPad 2 only: $4.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4226/">app2.me/4226</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="MachinariumIcon" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/MachinariumIcon.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">This iPad 2-specific adventure takes us back to the classic days of great PC adventures. The point-and-click style of gameplay makes a perfect transition to the iPad’s touch screen, and the extra horsepower of the iPad 2 makes Machinarium’s wonderfully off-beat visuals shine.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Machinarium screenshot" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Machinariumscreenshot.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 94px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">The game follows the adventures of Josef, a little bot who wakes up in a junk heap. Josef soon puts himself together and takes off on a journey to rescue his kidnapped lady-bot love, who is being held high in the tower of a grungy robot city. Machinarium uses beautifully drawn, almost comic book-like graphics to tell its story. The characters are expressive, the animation is smooth, and there’s always something to see in each of the new locations.</xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">One amazing facet of the game is the way it tells its story without any actual dialogue. Emotive thought bubbles and character animation do all the work; it’s a simple, yet elegant way to convey meaning. Although there are quite a few good classic-style adventure games on the iPad—particularly the Monkey Island games—Machinarium is the one that will stick with players the longest and shows off just how impressive the iPad 2 can be.</xhtml:p></p>
GamesOtherSat, 14 Jan 2012 22:04:30 +0000SolomOn27101653 at https://www.iphonelife.comQ and A with Mike Stemmle, Designer of Back to the Future: The Gamehttps://www.iphonelife.com/issues/2012January-February/QAWithMikeStemmle
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<a href="/users/mike-riley" title="View user profile.">Mike Riley</a> </div>
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<a href="/issues/2012January-February">January-February 2012</a> </div>
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Apps </div>
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<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>Mike Riley</strong>: Who at Telltale came up with the initial desire of doing a back to the Future adventure game? What was their driving inspiration to add to the back to the Future story?&nbsp;</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>Mike Stemmle: I’m not sure who came up with the idea. I know that the bigwigs at Telltale and Universal performed an elaborate courtship dance, and somewhere along the lines Back to the Future and Jurassic Park were settled on as the “Licenses Most Likely To Get People Seriously Jazzed.”</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: What do you think makes the back to the Future stories so endearing to past and current fans?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: There are a number of reasons. From a purely science-fiction perspective, it’s one of the best time travel stories ever. It’s got crisp, heartfelt writing, memorable characters, quickly Oedipal undercurrents; all the things that make for an enduring classic. But for me, the key component is its nearly complete lack of cynicism. At its core, Marty and Doc are nice guys who are trying to make things better. This resonates with our better angels, methinks.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: The art direction in the game is unique, with its angular caricatures of the original performers, the faithful reproduction of certain memorable scenes from the movie series, and the colorful exaggerated settings found in the game. Why did you take this approach versus doing a straight-up motion-cap photorealistic stage alternative?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: We toyed with the photo-realistic take for a while (as well as some more wildly stylized approaches) before settling in our “angular caricature” approach. In the end, I think it works well for the Back to the Future universe, probably because Back to the Future itself is TEEMING with broad caricatures.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: Was it difficult to acquire the license and get some of the original characters to do the voice acting for the game?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: I really have no idea how hard it was to acquire the license (that’s a bit above my pay grade). As for the original actors, I’m not aware of any problems getting them to do the game. In fact, we might have even had to turn one or two of them away. Personally, I blame Christopher Lloyd for this. I think once the other cast members saw how much fun he was having, they all wanted to dive in.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: Were there any sequences or story elements that you wanted to include in the final game but couldn’t due to time or technology constraints?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: There always are. We had a whole bit in the final episode in which Marty got dragged around town on his skateboard by the Static Accumulator… sigh.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: What is your favorite episode in the 5-part series and what makes it your top choice?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: I’m not going to choose a favorite, but I will admit that I’m perversely fond of the second episode, mostly because it’s got a musical puzzle. I love musicals.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: Has the series officially concluded with the final release of Episode 5, or will gamers have a chance to continue their adventures in future back to the Future episodes?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: Who can say? The future, to tritely steal from a better writer, has yet to be written.</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b><strong>MR</strong>: Given the warm reception received by back to the Future fans and gamers, are there any other movie-to-game adventure adaptions that Telltale can talk about at this time?</xhtml:b></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><em>MS: You mean aside from Jurassic Park, Walking Dead, Fables, and Kings Quest? I’m sure we’ve got some kicking around here somewhere…</em></xhtml:p></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Besides the work on Jurassic Park and other TV and comic to game adaptations, there’s a hint of more to come from Marty and Doc. Be sure to watch Back to the Future’s ending credit roll for the special surprise hinted at the conclusion of the credits! Keep up with all of Telltale’s game projects at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telltalegames.com/">www.telltalegames.com</a>.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Mike Riley is an advanced computing professional specializing in emerging technologies and new development trends. Contact him&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mike@mikeriley.com">mike@mikeriley.com</a>&nbsp;or follow him on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/@mriley">@mriley</a>.</xhtml:p></p>
GamesOtherSat, 14 Jan 2012 21:05:54 +0000SolomOn27101650 at https://www.iphonelife.comBack to the Future: The Gamehttps://www.iphonelife.com/issues/2012January-February/Thumbs/GreatScott
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Great Scott! This game series will appeal to new and old fans of the Back to the Future Trilogy </div>
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<a href="/users/mike-riley" title="View user profile.">Mike Riley</a> </div>
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<a href="/issues/2012January-February">January-February 2012</a> </div>
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Web </div>
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<p><img alt="Great Scott" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/GreatScott.jpg" style="margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; ">The Back to the Future trilogy recently hit its 25th year anniversary milestone. While the movies continue to hold up remarkably well (even though the effects are showing their age), Telltale Games has revitalized the beloved time travel story with new life, fresh characters, and old friends.</p>
<p><img alt="Marty McFly" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/marty1.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Back to the Future: The Game, released in 5 episodic parts, takes players back to 1985 and the Hill Valley Mall parking lot where the action from the original movie began. Taking place two months after the conclusion of the last movie in the series, the game takes Marty McFly and Emmett “Doc” Brown back to 1931. This was the height of well-dressed gangster thugs and speakeasies. A young Doc is struggling with his father’s desire to have him pursue law versus Doc’s true passion in scientific projects. As Marty and the old Doc create ripples in the new timeline, young Doc’s past diverges, creating paradoxes and new character relationships along the way.</xhtml:p></p>
<p class="caption">Marty McFly worries about implications of time travel (right).</p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Since each episode is sold separately, this article will take a brief look at the most memorable highlights of each, even though the game is incomplete without playing through each title sequentially.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Episode 1: It’s About Time</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(For iPad Only: $6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4190/">app2.me/4190</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Back to the future episode 1" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/episode1logo.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">The first episode is predominantly about reacquainting gamers with the Back to the Future storyline, central characters, and iconic places (like Doc’s home) from the first movie. It’s also intended to help gamers acclimate to the game’s interface, character movement, and interaction. The game ramps up slowly at first, but by the end of the episode, I was fully engaged with this new addition to the Back to the Future universe. The writing, humor, and set pieces were very much in the style of the original movies. Other games that pay homage to the source material fail because they modernize the core themes. The cliffhanger at the end of the episode is classic, like those from old 1940’s series. The credit roll, like most episodes, features a brief glimpse of encounters in the next chapter in the series.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Episode 2: Get Tannen!</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(For iPad Only: $6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4191/">app2.me/4191</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Back to the future episode 2" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/episode2logo.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><img alt="kid tannen" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/kidtannen.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; line-height: 16px; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 108px; "></p>
<p style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; ">Marty infiltrates and eavesdrops on Tannen’s Gang, posing as a gangster. It is also in this episode that we learn of Doc’s new love interest that, considering the references made to Doc’s wife and children from the end of the third movie, is a new twist indeed. Thanks to this wrinkle and a few other curveballs in the story, this is where the story becomes much harder to predict (especially for an old jaded gamer like myself). Consequently, it made me want to continue playing into the next chapter of the story that much more!</span></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Episode 3: Citizen Brown</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(For iPad Only: $6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4192/">app2.me/4192</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Back to the future episode 3" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/episode3logo.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><img alt="marty and police" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/martyandpolice.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">A 1980’s iteration of Officer Parker reprimands Marty for breaking the revised authoritarian rules of Citizen Brown in Hill Valley. Doc is now Citizen Brown, and he’s a puppet to the power hungry Edna in a darkly revised 1986 version of Hill Valley. It is the antithesis of the crime-ridden future Hill Valley from the second movie in the trilogy. Through a series of encounters with 1980’s characters, including the good-girl-turned-punker, Jennifer (voiced by the original Jennifer from the movie), Marty ultimately convinces Citizen ‘Doc’ Brown about his true past and the need to return to the 1930’s era to once again change history for the better.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">My kids and I found this episode to be the least entertaining of the bunch, mostly due to its dystopian, Big Brother imprint by the humorless “Citizen” Brown, the dark undertones, and the intentional low-point in the story arc. We also encountered an unintentionally devious impasse that required us to break our promise of not calling upon any hint guides and visit Telltale’s online forum to solve what turned out to be an obvious solution. Still, this third chapter is a necessary part of the episodic storyline and greatly enhances the payoff in the last episodes.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Episode 4: Double Visions</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(For iPad Only: $6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4193/">app2.me/4193</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Back to the future episode 4" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/episode4logo.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">After rescuing Citizen Brown from Edna’s clutches, Doc and Marty go back in time to stop young Emmett and Edna from falling in love. Even with the idea of erasing this timeline from history, Doc’s compassion for what will become of Edna is heartwarming. It also helps to set up the episode’s conclusion The young Doc is seated at the precipice of the infamous clock tower, and once again gives this timepiece a starring role in a stunning cliffhanger ending.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">This episode brings back the positive energy and hope that the things that are broken can be fixed. From here the momentum builds toward a startling conclusion.</xhtml:p></p>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Episode 5: OUTATIME</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">(For iPad Only: $6.99,&nbsp;<a href="http://app2.me/4194/">app2.me/4194</a>)</xhtml:p></p>
<p><img alt="Back to the future episode 5" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/episode5logo.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; float: right; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><img alt="Marty flies in time machine" src="/files/2012January-February/Thumbs/Martyfliesintimemachine.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; "></p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">This is where most (but not all) of the game’s loose ends get sewn up. It also turned out to be our favorite episode – the pacing, the crescendo of excitement, the satisfying and delightful homage to the end of the first Back to the Future movie (with a twist) are all top notch. Michael J Fox’s cameo voice playing the part of Marty’s middle-aged grandfather was simply icing on an already delectable cake.X</xhtml:p></p>
<p class="caption">Marty, in the iconic flying Delorean, draws a dramatic conclusion in the final episode.</p>
<p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>Problems…</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></p>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Not everything in the game was perfect. Here is a short list of issues that occasionally popped up regardless of the episode:</xhtml:p></p>
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<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Audio can sometimes get clipped and animation frames get dropped when the iPad’s processor becomes bogged down by apps suspended in the background. Leave the subtitles on to be sure you don’t miss out on any spoken dialog.</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Moving Marty along the scene’s path can get tricky at times. When pointing at one part of the screen, Marty may decide to move elsewhere, requiring a second or third attempt to finally register the intended direction.</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Episodes still need to be purchased separately, even though all the episodes are now available. (They were released individually due to the episodic nature of the releases.)</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Not so much a criticism but more of a tip – remember that some paths can lead outward from the screen. One puzzle that stymied my kids and I for over an hour was a segment in Episode 3 that required Marty to return to an area to continue the story. We tried every direction we could think of, and clicked on every object we could find to no avail. Finally, my daughter realized we could move Marty to the extreme front of the screen to exit, and we moved on to the next part of the story.</xhtml:p></li>
</ul>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>And Praise</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Just in case you didn’t pick up on how much my kids and I enjoyed playing these five episodes, here are some additional qualities that made Back to the Future: The Game on the iPad such a memorable adventure:</xhtml:p></p>
<ul>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">AJ LoCascio, the actor who voiced Marty McFly, has a dead-ringing vocal imitation for a 1980’s Michael J. Fox. And the guest appearance of Mr. Fox himself voicing Marty’s great grandfather William in Episode 5 was a surprising treat.</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">The artistic style and colorful graphic design throughout the game are a perfect complement to the fanciful story. It really adds a terrific new level of personality to the characters and their time periods</xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">.</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Alan Silvestri’s musical score from the movies has been enhanced and plays almost all the time in the background to great effect. Rarely is Marty standing around without any music or ambient sounds permeating the background.</xhtml:p></li>
<li><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Nearly 20 hours of gameplay for all the episodes means that even though the complete collection is rather expensive for an iPad adventure title, the level of quality and entertainment value are unmatched compared to other graphic adventure games currently available in the App Store.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Detailed walkthroughs for all the episodes are available on Telltale’s community blog, (<a href="http://telltalegames.com/community/blogs/">telltalegames.com/community/blogs</a>).</xhtml:p></li>
</ul>
<h4><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "></xhtml:p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b>We Drained the iPad’s Battery</xhtml:b></xhtml:h2></h4>
<p><xhtml:h2 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><xhtml:b></xhtml:b></xhtml:h2><xhtml:p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; ">Back to the Future: The Game shows why the iPad is becoming a top gaming platform. Even though the game is available on consoles and computers, very little was compromised in the iPad conversion. It helps that the game faithfully brings players back to different time periods, and also lets new players experience the movie themes and characters for the first time. This game took serious dedication from the Telltale team, along with the collaboration of original Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale, the voice talents of the original Doc (Christopher Lloyd), Claudia Wells (Jennifer), and Michael J Fox’s surprise contribution. My kids and I had a wonderful time playing the game, not stopping between episodes so we could dive right into the next chapter. We drained the iPad’s battery twice while playing the game. We just hope we don’t have to wait another 25 years to play the game’s sequel!</xhtml:p></p>
Back to the Future: The GameGamesOther419176153Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:09:50 +0000SolomOn27101287 at https://www.iphonelife.comFake Apple Phishing Email Making the Rounds!https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/21833/fake-apple-phishing-email-making-rounds
<p><span>Email openers beware! If you receive an email like this one, be sure to first check who the email is from, then be sure to hover your cursor over the link before you click it, and if it is NOT Apple then do NOT click it! According to Intego, the website that this takes you to looks a lot like Apple’s real site! Be careful out there!</span></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>See the link below for more information!</p><p><a href="http://blog.intego.com/beware-of-apple-billing-information-phishing-e-mails/">http://blog.intego.com/beware-of-apple-billing-information-phishing-e-mails/<img alt="" src="/sites/iphonelife.com/files/u21833/applephish.jpg" style="width:456px; height:373px" width="456" height="373" /></a></p>How-ToOtherWed, 28 Dec 2011 17:55:39 +0000Gus Osimitz99862 at https://www.iphonelife.comStocking Stuffers: Tankbotshttps://www.iphonelife.com/blog/94/stocking-stuffers-tankbots
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.iphonelife.com/sites/iphonelife.com/files/tankbots_0.jpg" title="" width="450" height="137" /></p><p>They come in a colorful array of orange, green, blue, and black. They are more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and they are aptly named <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbots</a>. They sort of look like little Smart Cars on tractor treads.</p><p>There are a few steps that must be followed to get your <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> up and running. The first thing you'll want to do is fold down the USB charging tab from the back of the unit and plug it into any USB port. While it's charging, download the <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> app for your IOS or Android device. Yes, if works with iPhone, iPods, ipads, and all Android devices. Then turn off the sound from within the system settings. Next, in the remote sensor, install the little hearing aid batteries that come with it.</p><p>You're almost set to go. Just plug the sensor into a 3.5mm sound jack and switch it on. A blue light will flash. Invoke the <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> app, select your Deskpet and turn it on. On the screen two levers will appear that you can use for remote navigation that commands the vehicle to go left, right, backward and forward. Be warned that they are kind of touchy at it takes some getting used to controlling it.</p><p>The <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> has three modes of operation , all controlled by the on/off button. Push the button to turn it on. When the blue headlights turn on, push it again for autonomous obstacle avoidance and maze navigation. Push it again for free roaming with light and sound. The third push enables remote control mode.</p><p>Frankly, I had the most fun with the obstacle avoidance and maze navigation mode. I turn it loose on my desk and let it avoid and maneuver around the objects on my desk. It's a hoot. It senses the edge of the desk and turns away. My kids used to have buckets full of Legos. I will I still had them so that I could build a complex maze with them and put the <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> through its paces. It's surprisingly intelligent.</p><p>Other than being somewhat touchy to control in remote mode, it seems to have a penchant for tipping over backwards when it runs into certain objects, which I find annoying.</p><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jgrpUbCtvE&amp;list=UUCbCBR2L2L2p6uL4HG_1meg&amp;index=7&amp;feature=plcp">Here's a YouTube video to see it in operation.</a></p><p><a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbots</a> are the latest release in the Deskpet menagerie joining Skitterbots that look like red, blue, white or green bodied tarantulas and white, blue, black, or orange Trekbots that look like little, slant-wheeled wheel chairs sans a person.</p><p>Anyway, the <a href="/rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=valuesnatc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B005KQR5JS&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr%27%20title=%27%27%3eTankbot%3c/a">Tankbot</a> will make an excellent stocking stuffer for Christmas or a welcome little gift any time of year. &nbsp;The street price is around $49.95, but I've seen them for $39.99, but it's a small price to pay for so much entertainment for you, friends, and family.</p>GamesOtherThu, 15 Dec 2011 23:15:43 +0000Tim Hillebrand98358 at https://www.iphonelife.com